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Graphene: The next Fly Rod material, perhaps?

Graphene paper, wrap that around yer mandrel!

Since I’m mostly a nerd disguised as normal guy I secretly read /. pretty frequently and have done so for a quite a long time. Its unapologetically nerdy, the kind of nerdy that doesn’t make for good Spike TV shows or anything beyond just keeping nerds informed of nerdy things. Nothing glamorous or ironically hipster-ish about it, just a bunch of nerds talking about nerdy stuff.

Today I saw an interesting link about a cutting edge material, which I’ve covered before, that I think someday could be make its way into our little fly fishing world – Graphene Paper.

Its a carbon composite nano-material that says its as thin as sheet of paper and as strong as steel. Pretty cool stuff. I’m not sure if it actually has any practical applications in building fly rods, but I bet someone is looking into it, and if they aren’t they should be.

Just go be like Gary Loomis and stand out in the parking lot where these researchers work and corner them until they show you how to use it.

Article is quoted below…

UTS Scientists have reported remarkable results in developing a composite material based on graphite that is a thin as paper and ten times stronger than steel.

In work recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics, a UTS research team supervised byProfessor Guoxiu Wang has developed reproducible test results and nanostructural samples of graphene paper, a material with the potential to revolutionise the automotive, aviation, electrical and optical industries.

Graphene paper (GP) is a material that can be processed, reshaped and reformed from its original raw material state – graphite. Researchers at UTS have successfully milled the raw graphite by purifying and filtering it with chemicals to reshape and reform it into nano-structured configurations which are then processed into sheets as thin as paper.

Using a synthesised method and heat treatment, the UTS research team has produced material with extraordinary bending, rigidity and hardness mechanical properties. Compared to steel, the prepared GP is six times lighter, five to six times lower density, two times harder with 10 times higher tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity.

And if you are super nerdy and good at math, which I am not, then here is a link to the actual paper published in the Journal of Applied Physics.